THE Forty 4-4-0s Club has been set up to help finance the casting of the four 6ft 8½in driving wheels for No. 3840 County of Montgomery, which have been ordered from Trefoil Steel in Sheffield.
We already have a head start in the manufacture of the coupled wheels thanks to the Great Western Society, which has kindly released the wooden wheel pattern used to cast the wheels for ‘Saint’ 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend; these being identical to those of the Churchward ‘Counties’.
Each wheel will be made of high quality cast steel, with those for the leading axle differing slightly from those of the trailing wheelset. This is because the ‘Counties’, like the ‘Saints’, had two different designs of wheel; the leading driven wheels having a 5¾in centre boss and the rear wheels a 4¾in centre boss. The pattern as loaned has the smaller boss, and therefore first two wheels for No. 3840 will be cast from the pattern as it is, but it will then have to be altered to allow for the larger 5¾in boss. The modification work will cost £2,700 to complete.
To meet these costs the CCT invites you to join its Forty 4-4-0s Club, which allows supporters to ‘adopt’ one (or more) of the original 40 ‘County’ 4-4-0s, which were all named after British and Irish counties with which the GWR had connections, albeit obscure connections in some cases.
Membership of the Forty 4-4-0s Club is set at £1,000 (payable in one lump sum or in eight payments of £125 by standing order), and comes with a string of incentives including:
- An invitation to the launch of County of Montgomery
- A seat on the locomotive’s first train
- A special certificate acknowledging the ‘County’ being adopted
- A framed and mounted photograph of the ‘County’ being adopted *
- A mounted print of No. 3840 by artist Jonathan Clay
- Your name on Roll of Honour
- Life membership of the CCT
NOTE: Each locomotive may only be adopted once!
Additionally, the names of all Forty 4-4-0s Club members will have their names put into a ballot; the winner receiving a replica of the nameplate of the ‘County’ of their choice. If all 40 locomotives are adopted, the CCT will have reached its £40,000 target.
The full list of ‘Counties’ available for adoption is as follows:
3800 County of Middlesex – Adopted by D Castle
3801 County Carlow – Adopted by R Chapman
3802 County Clare – Adopted by P Day
3803 County Cork
3804 County Dublin
3805 County Kerry
3806 County Kildare
3807 County Kilkenny – Adopted by C Chaney
3808 County Limerick – Adopted by I Townson
3809 County Wexford
3810 County Wicklow
3811 County of Bucks – Adopted by R Wyatt
3812 County of Cardigan – Adopted by S Lloyd
3813 County of Carmarthen
3814 County of Chester – Adopted by J Langley
3815 County of Hants – Adopted by S Davies
3816 County of Leicester – Adopted by G Boyd-Hope
3817 County of Monmouth – Adopted by J Churchward
3818 County of Radnor
3819 County of Salop – Adopted by D Tunbridge
3820 County of Worcester – Adopted by A Turner
3821 County of Bedford – Adopted by P Gomm
3822 County of Brecon – Adopted by J Pearse
3823 County of Carnarvon
3824 County of Cornwall – Adopted by J D Webber
3825 County of Denbigh – Adopted by N Wellings
3826 County of Flint – Adopted by P R Williams
3827 County of Gloucester – Adopted by G Rose
3828 County of Hereford – Adopted by P Stanton
3829 County of Merioneth – Adopted by I Handley
3830 County of Oxford – Adopted by T Willcox
3831 County of Berks – Adopted by C Chaney
3832 County of Wilts – Adopted by P Bamber
3833 County of Dorset – Adopted by R Chapman
3834 County of Somerset – Adopted by R Croucher
3835 County of Devon – Adopted by B Hillier
3836 County of Warwick – Adopted by D Hancox
3837 County of Stafford – Adopted by N Harding
3838 County of Glamorgan
3839 County of Pembroke – Adopted by P Day
A Forty 4-4-0s Club membership form is available here.